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Hanna is five years old. She drew this picture of the happy family she wishes for.

Her mother named her Hanna but her name is nowhere officially recognised; to the German authorities, she is a nameless child. She was born in Cologne, and has always lived there. She knows no other country than Germany but has been considered an undocumented migrant all her life. To read Hanna’s full story, click here.

Hanna’s story is part of PICUM’s series of testimonies and stories of undocumented children and youth. PICUM, in which Pro Igual participates, regularly publishes stories and quotes in written form or through multimedia in the run-up to Universal Children’s day in November. The series aims to give a voice to children and young people as well as to their parents, caregivers and supporting organisations to show the realities undocumented children and youth face across Europe. Testimonies are available in English, French and Spanish and can also be shared through social media. #ShareYourStory

The recent report by the The World Jewish Congress recorded a disturbing rise in extreme right, xenophobic and anti-Semitic political parties across Europe, echoing with Pro Igual´s own findings of the past years.

The WJC report is available here; the excerpts of the Executive Summary are as follows.

“Parties with neo-Nazi leanings have seen a significant resurgence, particularly in Greece and Hungary where, respectively, Golden Dawn and Jobbik have either achieved double figures in elections or are polling at such levels in opinion surveys. Both have seen their support rise dramatically from small beginnings. …

“There are good reasons for believing that governments are either conflicted or confused in their approach to neo-Nazi parties. In Greece, the government does not appear to know what to do. In Hungary the governing party wants Jobbik’s votes at the next election, and in Germany, where the National Democratic Party does not have wide support but is feared for historical reasons, the government has backed away from outlawing it believing that its efforts would fail at the Constitutional Court.

“Economic crisis is in some cases plainly a contributory factor in the growth of neo-Nazi parties. The Greek economy has declined by 20 percent since the crisis began with general unemployment now standing at over 27 percent and youth unemployment at over 60 percent.

“Anti-Semitism remains a central feature of neo-Nazi parties even though their main focus in many European countries is on non-white minorities. The anti-Semitic rhetoric is often extreme, as when a Jobbik parliamentarian last year called for a list to be drawn up of the country’s Jews in order to assess whether they represented a security risk to Hungary.”